Folding camera



R. KROEDEL.

FOLDING CAMERA.

APPLICATION FILED was. 1920.

.11 I E 6 N mm m y NI w! m dm w m e m 5 R. KR OEDEL.

FOLDING CAMERA.

APPLICATION FILED AUG-3 1920.

Patented May 3, 1921.

3 SHEE.TS-SHEET 2 |NVENTOR 15 06675 ZZ'OtQQZ BY XLM IL I (I les ATTORNEY RQKROEDEL.

FOLDING CAMERA.

APPLICATION FILED AUG-3| 1920.

1,376,946. Patented May 3,1921.

3 SHEETSSHEET- 3,

BY Q 'ATTORNEY UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT KROEDEL.

OF ROCHESTER. NEW YORK. ASSIGNOR TO EASTMAN KODAK COM- PANY, OF ROCHESTER. NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

FOLDING CAMERA.

Application filed August 3,

T (177 10710222 it may concern:

Be it known that 1. ROBERT KRQEDEL, of Rochester. in the. county of Monroe and State of New York. have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Folding Cameras: and I do hereby declare the fol lowing to be a full. clear. and exact description of the same. reference being had to the accompanying drawings. forming a part of this specification. and to the reference numerals marked thereon.

My present invention relates to photography and more particularly to photographic cameras of the folding pocket type and it has for its object to improve the construction whereby the back. that is removed to gain access to the film chambers. is fitted to the body. The improvements are directed in part toward making the film chambers accessible and so arranging the film roll supports as to admit of the use of a film spool of maximum length. Another feature relates to themanner in which the back is locked to the body. To these and other ends the invention resides in certain improvements and combinations of parts all as will be hereinafter more fully described. the novel features being pointed out in the claims at the end of the specification.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a front view of a camera constructed in accordance with and illustrating one embodiment of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a side view thereof:

Fig. 3 is an end or bottom view:

Fig. 1 is a front view of the back. detached:

Fig. 5 is a rear view of the body with the back removed;

Fig. 6 is a vertical section taken to one side of the bellows frame:

Fig. 7 is a side view of the body with the back removed. and

Fig. 9 is a transverse sectional view through the back substantially on the line S8 of Fig. 2 to show details of the locking bolts.

Similar reference numerals throughout the several views indicate the same parts.

ilthough the camera shown in the present embodiment of the invention is. as usual. used in either the upright or horizontal position. I will. for convenience. describe it with reference to the former as it appears in the Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 3, 1921.

1920. Serial No. 400,925.

drawing. Referring first to Figs. 1, 5 and 7, the body or front portion consists of a front plate 1 to the rear of which is secured the bellows frame 2 in which the bellows 3 and lens 1 are stored and which defines the exposure opening. all as usual and familiar to those skilled in the art. The usual opening 5 in the front is closed by a door 6 hinged at- 7 and constituting a bed upon which the lens is projected. Film chambers 8 and 9 next above and below the frame 2 accommodate the winding and feed spools. respectively (not shown). In the feed chamber, the spool is supported upon dead centers 10 and 11. the former of which is fixed to a spring tongue 12 secured at 13 to the side of the frame 2 and adapted to yield endwise of the chamber to release the spool. The other is carried on a leaf 1t hinged at 15 and pro jects through a steadying rigid bracket plate 16. The leaf 11 may also be swung out endwise of the chamber .to release the spool.

17 is a tensioning spring in each chamber adapted to frictionally engage the roll.

The winding chamber 8 has spool centers 18 and 19. the latter constructed and mounted exactly like the center 11. The center 18 is the winding center shaped to lock with the end slot of the spool and carried by a clutch element 20 rotatable in a spring leaf 21 extended from the same plate as the spring leaf- 12. The interlocking portion of the clutch member 20 is provided by a screw head channel 22 and the winding key of the camera cooperates with this. detachably. as will later appear.

The front plate l'provides the front wall of each film chamber and is curved or extended rearwardly as at 23 to constitute a portion of the top or bottom wall. as the case may be. in the present instance. half of such wall. but the ends of the chambers are unobstructed thereby or by any part of the body. as clearly appears in Fig. T and when the camera is open. as in that figure. the spools may be handled with easy access and their supporting centers displaced in an endwise direction with perfect freedom during both insertion and removal. A light-lock flange is. however. turned rearwardly at each lateral edge of the front plate 1. as indicated at 21 and as shown in Fig. 6. the edge of the extension 23 is provided with the usual form of light-lock channel 25. @n

each flange 24, there is, further, a laterally turned ear or extension 26 that constitutes a keeper member of the lock that secures the hereinafter described back to the body.

Referring moreparticularly to Figs. 2, 4 and 6, the detachable back consists of a back plate 27, the upper and lower ends of which are curved forwardly at 28 to meet "the portions 23 of the body and constitute the rear walls of the film chambers 8 and 9 and the remainder of the top or bottom walls thereof, such portions being fitted with light-lock flanges 29 cooperating with the channels 25. The back plate 27 carries, rigidly fixed thereto, the side walls 30 of the camera, the forward edges of which are grooved at 31 to cooperate with the light- .lock flanges 24 of the body and front plate.

Thus when the back is removed, the accessible status of the body, as shown in Fig. 7 and Fig. 5, is established or restored.

Suitably mounted in each side wall 30 to slide vertically is a bolt plate 32 having an outstanding finger-piece 33 (Fig. 2) movable in an opening and depression 34 in the wall. A forwardly extending hook\35 on this bolt plate, suitably offset, (see Fig. 8) is adapted to engage and! lock with the corresponding keeper 26 on the light flange 24 of the ront plate and hold the back and bod tightly together.

ounted in one of the side walls 30 in the usual back wind braking drum 36 isa winding key 37 at the portion of such wall constituting the end wall of the winding film chamber 8. Thisv key has the usual axial movement so that when retracted, as shown in full lines in Fig. 4, it does not protrude into the film chamber and interfere'with the separation of the camera back, but when thrust in, aS in Fig. 1, it projects, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 4. Such projecting end is provided witha diametri cal clutching rib 38 adapted to interlockwvit'h the clutching channel 22 of the spbol center clutch member 20 and to rotate the spool from the exterior. With this arrangement 7 in connection with the specific mounting. of the winding spool, the parts are readily disengaged and as no endwise movement of the spool or its centers occurs during the A separation of the parts of the camera, or

during their assembly, the chamber will accommodate a longer spool than would other wise be the case.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a folding camera, the combination With a camera body comprising" a bellows frame, a front plate having an opening for the bellows, a pair of laterally yielding film roll supports on top of the frame, and another pair of laterally yielding film roll supports beneath the frame, the front plate being curved rearwardly at top and bottom to provide a front wall and a part of the top wall, only, of film chambers in closing each pair of roll supports, of a removable back comprising a back plate having forwardly curved upper and lower ends cooperating with the corresponding portions of the front plate to provide the rear walls and the remaining parts of the top walls of the film chambers and side plates fixed to the back plate to form the side walls of the camera and the entire end walls of both film chambers.

2. In a folding camera, the combination -with at camera body comprising a bellows frame and a front plate thereon curved rearwardly at one end to constitute the front and part of the top of a film roll chamber but not the end walls thereof, of aremovable back embodying a back plate curved forwardly to constitute the remainder of the top and the rear wall of the film roll *chamber and side plates constituting the entire side walls of the camera and the ends of the film roll chamber, film roll supports on the bellows frame within the chamber and yieldable endwise thereof when the camera is open, a spool centering clutch member on one of said supports, an axially operating with the light-lock flanges on the front plate and bolts on the side walls cooperating with the keeper devices to lock the back and body to ether. 1

R0 ERT KROEDEL. 

